1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color correction device and color correction method for correcting the colors in an inputted image and outputting a corrected image.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is already a well-known technique for correcting colors in an image as a whole, wherein an experienced user visually compares the colors in an original image and those in a corrected image and then adjusts the parameters for color correction, such as gain, gamma, or hue, in a color space, such as a red.green.blue (RGB) color space or a lightness.chroma.hue (LCH) color space.
Another example of a conventional color correction technique is that used by the color correction device taught by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 5-300531, the construction of which is shown in FIG. 1. As can be seen in the drawing, the color correction device in the aforementioned reference is comprised of a color monitor 101, a touch panel 102, a color corrector 103, a playback VTR 104, a recording VTR 105, an editing unit 106, an original image 107 and a reference image 108. For the color correction device constructed as described above, the original image 107 inputted from the playback VTR 104 is first displayed along with the reference image 108 on the color monitor 101. Next, the user uses the touch panel 102 to indicate a specifying indication color in the reference image 108 and a specifying indication color in the original image 107. Following this, the color corrector 103 refers to the indicated specifying indication colors and executes color correction of the color in the original image which belongs to an area which is limited in three-dimensions in the color space.
However, since the former of these conventional color correction methods relies on the experience and intuition of the user, this means that the quality of the work which can be achieved by such method will depend on the ability of the user. A further problem lies in that when correction of the specified color is performed, other colors in the image end up being affecting in a similar way.
For color correction using the latter of the two methods described above, it is necessary to set the correction area for each of the specified indication colors by trial and error, so that here, too, the quality of the work which can be achieved will depend on the skill of user. As a further problem, when the degree to which correction is performed for a correction area is great, there can be a sudden drop-off in the transition of color at the border between the corrected area and the non-corrected area, so that there can be the unnatural phenomenon of an outline (hereafter, "false outline") which is not present in the original image being seen at the border between such corrected and non-corrected areas.